


Hot Thoughts

by donato



Category: Emergency!
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 11:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9892514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donato/pseuds/donato
Summary: A missing scene based on The Virus episode.As Johnny starts to get more delirious his thoughts become more disjointed and link in ways that only make sense to Johnny. A short look at Johnny Logic under the influence of fever.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [my Beta - Little Possum. Once again I'm indebted to you. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=my+Beta+-+Little+Possum.+Once+again+I%27m+indebted+to+you.+Any+mistakes+are+mine+and+mine+alone.).



> A reference to another episode is made in passing. Knowing me it probably aired after the Virus so for all the purists out there please forgive me my blunder into moving episodes around.

Feeling tired and out of sorts, Johnny made his way to the squad for the latest call out, to a man down, involving the whole station. Maybe if he was lucky it would take time and they would need to follow up at Rampart and he would get out of showing the school kids around the station. Better yet he could ask Roy to swap and he would do the log book. When he thought about it that was about the only energy he had strength for.

Hot, he was so hot and dizzy. What the hell was going on?

One minute he was straddled over the guy on the scaffold, the next he was on the roof of the building with the sun beating down on him. Then it struck him. He was sick, OH GOD! He had that illness that that girl has and that Tim Dunkley had gone and caught. Thank goodness Roy knew what he was talking about. It was hard to get words out what with the fever and his propensity to get tongue tied when he was flustered.

Right now, Johnny would give his right arm for a spray from a reel line. Nice cold water bathing his body sounded so good. Failing that a dip in the ocean sounded just as good. Oddly enough he could hear the oceans rhythmic pounding in his ears. Strange, the call out wasn't anywhere near the sea Johnny mused. Then he realised it was his own rapid heartbeat he could hear swishing in his ears. His brain was so muddled. His thoughts so jingled. 'I haven’t felt like this since I was a kid with chickenpox or was it measles?' Johnny thought as he moved his head from side to side trying to wipe his sweaty brow on his shirt sleeves but someone was holding his arms down and a tightness was increasing on his upper arm. He looked to it to understand what was going on. Blood pressure cuff. What's that doing on my arm? He looked from his arm to the person inflicting this boa constrictor around his arm. Chet. Since when did Chet become a paramedic?

Johnny was just about to ask when he felt the pressure slowly release from his arm and then all pressure was gone. Chet wrote it down and then grabbed Johnny's right wrist. Warm fingers rested gently against the thrum of his radial artery and Johnny saw Chet’s mouth move as he silently counted Johnny's pulse. Once again Chet wrote it down.

“Hang in there Johnny. You'll be alright man.” Chet said to his disorientated friend.

“Get his temperature, Chet.” Roy called out as he was preparing to shock the original victim.

Shortly afterwards Johnny felt something slip into his mouth and Chet murmuring something but he hadn't been paying attention to Chet so he missed what he said.  
Everything was happening in a blur around him. There were not only noises but a hive of activity going on to his left with men crouched around in a stretched-out circle. A high whining noise broke into his reverie and he realised it was the defibrillator. Was it for him. He looked at his chest. No not for him. Were they having a drill on how to use the defib? Then Johnny saw a pair of legs jerk off the ground. Hold on! That's a real person they are practising on. What on earth are they doing? Getting worried for the live 'dummy', Johnny went to get up to stop the men practising shocking a real person.

Chet put his arms out onto Johnny's shoulders and kept him on the hot roof trying to reassure his friend that he needed to stay still. He readjusted the thermometer in Johnny's mouth and held it so that Johnny wouldn't dislodge it again. Finally, Chet removed the glass tube from Johnny’s mouth and gave a low whistle when he saw the reading. He then replaced the thermometer back into the trauma box and wrote his findings down to give to Roy later.

“How ya going there Junior?” he heard Roy ask.

“I'm......I'm not doin' so well. I'm hot Roy, an' my head's real sore.”

Chet passed Roy the piece of paper with all Johnny's vital signs on it.

“Yeah. Well, I'm not surprised ya hot Junior. You've got a fever of 104. Looks like ya earned yourself a trip into Rampart Johnny. I'm gonna let Dr Early know about ya. You just lay back and let me do all the work okay?”

Johnny just gave a feeble nod of his head and closed his eyes against the harsh California sun beating down making everything hot and wavy around him. His last vision was of Roy looking at him with concern in his eyes.

'What does he know that I don’t? Heck Roy, don’t look like that, you’re scaring me.' was Johnny's last conscious thought before he gave into the blackness.

'What was that Dr Early was saying? OW!! What are you doing to me, Dixie? That's blood, my blood!! Oh, getting blood samples. Okay, I’m following what’s going on here. I can’t be that bad. Carol’s squeezing my arm. Blood Pressure, temperature, respirations and pulse. Hmm they are doing the whole lot. What’s my temp…? 104. I thought I was hot. Hot to trot that’s me. Hee hee. Thank you Dr Early, did I just hear you order cooling blankets. Ah, a man after my own heart. We could get Chet and Marco in with a line. Lot quicker, maybe a bit messier with the water going everywhere. Make it easier for the cleaners to clean the walls and floors if they are already wet. Brilliant idea there, Gage. Must remember to tell Brackett and Dixie about it next time I see ‘em.'

'Geeze, I’d wish they would stop talking in half sentences…Oh wait. No I think it’s me. Why am I only hearing bits and pieces. Nothing is making sense any more. Of course, I’m awake Dix, now if you would just repeat what you said before. What’s this? I’m moving. How can I be moving when I’m staying still? It’s not the room moving is it. God I feel dizzy. Close my eyes. Nope doesn’t make me any less dizzy. Still don’t know who’s moving. Another room. Bed looks nice right now. I’m so tired. Ahhh, jeepers, all my muscles and bones ache. Did you have to move me. I was fine where I was before!! Just let me be!! Leave me alone!! You bunch of masochistic General Custer wannabes. I’m…. oohhhh, yes that feels good. Nice and cold. A bit heavy and cumbersome, but overall nice and cold. Oh it’s the cooling blanket. Thanks Dix, have I told you lately that you’re great. Dixie the Great! Conqueress of the febrile and infirm. Forget about Joan of Arc, I’ve got Dixie of Rampart. With wings on her back and roller skates on her feet to get from A to B. A pot of coffee at her side and a pair of scissors to the ready.'

'Stop poking things in my mouth. It tastes awful. I need my mouth open to breathe, hard to breathe through my nose. Please don’t close my mouth. You are suffocating me. My God, you ‘re trying to kill me. Why, what did I do to you? Oh, mamma Help Me! Hot, so hot. Get these blankets off me. Heavy and hot. Need to cool down. Can’t get away from the heat. Fire, get out Roy! FIRE, don’t you hear me. I can hear you. Did you hear that. Temp’s 105. Doesn’t it get hotter than that in a fire. We haven’t got our SCBA on. That’s not good Roy. This turnout gear feels funny, not right. Why are my arms naked? I don’t have my boots on. None of this makes sense. I don’t understand what’s going on here. Help me, somebody please Help Me!'

\---***---

'I’m feeling so weak and my body is quitting on me. I’m going to be burned alive. Please Great Spirit, may I be unconscious before the flames get to me. Roy. If you can hear me pal, please be okay. Oh Great Spirit, please save Roy, he has a family. He’s got young children and a wife that would be devastated if he was to die too.' 

'This octopus is clutching at me and dragging me down. Let go of me. I can’t breathe under water. Need scuba gear. Need oxygen. Stop it. I DON’T WANT TO DIE. Why me? What did I do to you, octopus? Let go of my arm. Aarghh! I can feel your tentacle wrapping itself around my arm. I don’t like the deep sea. Let me go please. I promise to be good. I don’t even like seafood so I will never eat you. Not hungry. In fact, I feel real nauseous. You’re safe with me. We put a safe into the sea once. It was a magic act. Roy wouldn’t tell me for ages why he wasn’t concerned about the guy inside the safe when it went into the water. He wasn’t in the safe that’s why. I don’t have a safe. I don’t have anything valuable. My life is valuable but you can’t put that in a safe. Banks have safes. Could you imagine living in the bank. Could have a sand bank for all the sea creatures, Ha Ha, and a land bank for humans. What’s that going up my arm? Feels cool. Not an octopus, it’s an arm. A human arm. An IV line, that’s what was wrapped around ya arm Gage. Gosh are ya losing the plot or what. Never did know the plot to that Adam 12 show. Why is a baker’s dozen 13 and not 12? Maybe bakers can’t count. I can count but I can‘t bake. I can cook hamburgers and hot dogs. Don’t think of food, man. I feel sick enough as it is. When did I last eat? I’m not even hungry. That’s a first for me. Came first in the 440 an’ first in paramedic class. I come first a lot. No one can hold a stick to the “Galloping Greyhound” or the “Disaster Magnet” as Chet would say. Well, he’d probably throw a stick of dynamite to me. Knowing my luck, he would light the fuse too. Well don’t worry Chet I’m that hot that I could light the fuse from 20 paces with just my body heat alone. I could do with one or a hundred of ya water bombs right now. Thirsty, so very very thirsty.'

“What's he saying?” Roy asked Dixie who was bathing his fevered brow with cold wet cloths.

“I don't know. He's been ramblings bits and pieces most of the day. I think it’s just fever induced mutterings.”

\---***---

“Well, how’s it going tiger?” Dixie asked as she tucked the fresh linen in on Johnny’s bed.

He had been awake now for a day after being unconscious for the last 4 days. Kel was in his office catching up on paperwork. He was due back any minute. 

“You were having some wild and wonderful dreams, if ya murmurings were anything to go by, Galloping Greyhound”.

Johnny blushed lobster red and looked anywhere but at Dixie. “Ah, what else did I say, Dix? Um, nothing too embarrassing was there?”

“Why Johnny, don’t tell me you’ve gone all shy. It’s alright Tiger, you were delirious and it’s not uncommon for the mind to make weird connections. Let’s just say that between you and Kel it was most entertaining, especially once we knew you were going to be okay. Until then don’t you ever do that to me again. Do you hear me Johnny Gage!” Dixie was standing at the side of Johnny’s bed trying to look stern while holding a cup of water out to him. Johnny took it and drank a couple of mouthfuls before putting it back down on his table. His arm was shaky as he was still weak. Dixie wiped the spilled water with a tissue without comment.

The door opened with a bit more force than required and Kelly Brackett was wheeled back in vehemently voicing his displeasure at his abrupt removal from his office. 

“You had two hours in there Kel, that’s enough for your first day out of bed. Just be thankful we let you go to your office and not sitting in a chair by the window for two hours instead,” said Joe as he helped to wheel the head of the ER back into his room.

Kel went to stand but fumbled slightly and Joe quickly put a supporting arm out to help stabilize him. Once Kel was resettled back into bed and comfortable, Dixie and Joe made their exit with a promise to come back later to check on them. In the meantime, they were to rest and take it easy. They were given strict instructions about not getting out of bed, to use their call bell if needed and to drink lots of fluid. Johnny and Kel just looked at each other and grinned as the door closed behind their friends.

“Consider ourselves put in our place” whispered Kel. He wasn’t taking any chances in case his friends were lingering outside the door and heard him.

“Welcome to Rampart, Doc. Now you know how it feels. Any idea how soon we can get discharged from here?” Johnny asked hopefully.

“Why am I not surprised that that is one of the first things out of your mouth less than 24 hours out of a coma” Brackett laughingly said to Johnny.

The two men shared a look and then laughed heartily. One could only try thought Johnny before he pushed his control button and lowered the head of his bed to have a little snooze. Yep, one could only try he thought before sleep claimed him once more.

The End


End file.
